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Back-breaking work of reading made easy
By RYAN DAVIS, Times Staff Writer NEW PORT RICHEY -- Until Saturday, reading a book was a workout for Austin Ryder Jr., one of his sons and his daughter. The 45-year-old would hold a book 3 inches from his face with one hand. Then he'd squeeze a magnifying glass in there with the other hand. But he'd realize he was blocking the light, so he'd shift to a new position, hunched over the book. Then his back would get tight. Or his neck would hurt. "You say you're tired of reading," Ryder said. "With us, it's a whole physical body tired." Ryder, his son Austin III and his daughter, Charity, are legally blind. He sees the world at 20/600. They see it slightly better. They all suffer from a rare genetic condition that destroys the iris, which controls light and focus. On Saturday they received SmartView. It's a 19-inch computerlike screen perched atop a lens that magnifies type up to 60 times and projects it on a screen. For them, it's a way to read books without putting their noses into the spine -- and contorting their own spines. The family had an older model until it broke about a year ago. It needed parts that were no longer available. Lighthouse for the Visually Impaired and Blind, a nonprofit agency, couldn't help. "To try to get the funding for something like that is not easy," said Lighthouse low vision therapist Carol Robinson. "We were at our wit's end when we contacted the Holiday Lions Club." The Lions Club donated $2,000. Lighthouse paid the remaining $170. They delivered it to the family's Massachusetts Avenue home Saturday, which became testing day. Charity, an eighth-grader at a school for the deaf and blind in St. Augustine, stuck a notebook under the lens and practiced writing. She said it's better than the machines she has at school. With it, it takes her a month to read a thick book. Without it, it takes three or four months, she said. She can also use it to paint her nails, read the recipe for Tuna Helper and make bead necklaces, she said. Dad said he might renew the newspaper subscription he canceled when the last machine broke. He and his wife, who has no vision trouble, run a home day care center and real estate business. He used to look at the real estate classifieds. "I discontinued because it took all day to read the paper," he said. -- Ryan Davis can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6245, or toll-free at 800-333-7505, ext. 6245. His e-mail address is rdavis@sptimes.com.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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